Alternate Ending to Book of Ages
by Nike Shizu
Summary: What the title says: It's an alternate ending to yadda yadda...
1. Default Chapter

Okay, this is my 1st JCA fic. It's not really totally original either, it's just an alternate ending to the Book of Ages episode, because I think "Robo-Viper" and "Super-Tohru" is really corny. I've had this idea for a while and I've done some research on the Eight Immortals, but not that much. So if you're an expert on Chinese Mythology and think I've done something egregiously wrong with the Ba Xian, please tell me!  
  
Oh yes. Disclaimer: Jackie Chan Adventures belongs to Kids WB and Jackie Chan and whoever else.  
  
"Ch!" went Jade incredulously as Uncle frantically flipped page by rice- paper page through the Book of Ages, "We'll never find it! There's, like, 5 million pages in that thing!" She nervously hopped from foot to foot, praying that Jackie would come soon. The Temple gave her the creeps; it was vast and lonely, spotted as far as the eye could see with monstrous granite pillars that held up a big sky full of nothing. The place was filled with a heavy, oppressive silence, not affected by the eerie lapping of the tiny waves in the misty lake behind the Book.  
  
The silence was suddenly shattered when Shen-du crashed through the glowing barrier between the dimensions and howled in his multi-toned voice, "Get away from that book!" Jade started and moved closer to Uncle who was still turning pages, and Paco yelped and jumped behind her. Jade mustered up all the courage she had and yelled at the advancing dragon, "Sorry, Shen-du! We don't have to listen to you anymore!" Her eyes strayed to the remaining three demons who had followed their brother into the Temple for moral support.  
  
"You will," hissed Shen-du, his red eyes burning with hatred at the child, the one small child, who had somehow managed to ruin everything, "If you don't want to die engulfed in fire!" Warning tendrils of smoke curled up from his nostrils, but Jade stood her ground.  
  
"Oh yeah?" she shouted, clenching her fists at her sides, "Well," She silently urged Uncle to hurry and find the torn page in the book, "When Jackie gets here, he'll-"  
  
"He'll die with you, I assure you," Shen-du laughed. It was horrible laughter, amplified by the silence of the Temple, and all of Jade's fear changed to boiling anger as she watched the Dragon throw an unconscious and badly beat-up Jackie onto the floor before him.  
  
"You!" Jade yelled, dashing forward furiously, "You harm one hair on Jackie's head, and I swear I'll- GLKK!" Uncle grabbed her wrist and jerked her back. His face was ashen with terror, and his sparkling black eyes had regained the emptiness they'd held during his slavery.  
  
"This is your last warning, child," snarled Shen-du, cautiously advancing, "Step away from the Book, or watch your precious uncle burn."  
  
"Um." Jade stood motionless, her blood racing through her veins. She couldn't, she just couldn't give up now! Not after she'd come so far, not when she was so close to setting things right. But then she looked at Jackie, slumped unconscious on the floor by Shen-du's feet, and she knew that he was worth a billion realities. She made a tiny step forward, but at the same time her shaking hand spasmed and the gold pen made a scratch across the open Book.  
  
"You will pay for that!" shrieked Shen-du, and he flexed his muscles and let forth an earth-shaking roar at the ceiling. In a split-second a shimmering wave of fire spewed from his jaws and hit Jackie head on. "NO!!!" screamed Jade, lunging forward into Uncle who silently struggled to hold her back. She couldn't see the sparkling tears running down his wizened cheeks; she could only hear the roar and hiss of the fire, could only smell the overpowering scent of burning flesh. "No!" she screamed over and over again, tears drenching her face, "No, no, no, no, NO!" She fought hard against Uncle's arms, but the old man held her tight.  
  
Finally she collapsed on the floor by the Book, gazing with wide eyes at Jackie's charred body, sprawled grotesquely on the unmarred floor. It wasn't supposed to end like this.  
  
"I won't," said Shen-du coldly, "Ask you again. Step down now, or you will suffer the same fate."  
  
"Never!" screamed Jade, clutching the pen tightly. Then her vision was filled with an orange sea of flame, and her skin tightened as she was engulfed in searing heat. At the same moment she could hear Uncle's voice screaming into her ear, "Jade, I want you to have this!" She felt something forced into her hands- a talisman. The Dog Talisman.  
  
***** That's all for now; tengo escuela manana. I really hate killing Jackie off like that, but it had to be done. Please review. I'll finish it tomorrow, I promise... maybe. -Nike Shizu 


	2. Part II

I'm finishing it! I promised I would. Thank God, it's finally Summer! P.S. Shadowcrawler and Zoisite84, thank you so much for your reviews. I'm glad someone agrees with me!  
  
Disclaimer: Same as Ch. 1: I don't own any of this.  
  
Without even waiting for the flames to die away, Jade clutched the Talisman tight and threw herself at the Book of Ages. "And then-" Jade read aloud as she hurriedly scribbled down Chinese characters on the first blank page she saw.  
  
"No!" shrieked Shen-du, "How can it be?" And the air shrieked as he bared his teeth and charged at her, scattering the smoldering carcasses of Uncle and Paco.  
  
"Time stopped and the Eight Immortals came to help me!" screamed Jade, covering her head with her hands and bracing herself. Nothing happened. All was silent again; even the crackling embers on the Temple floor. Tentatively, she opened her eyes and found herself staring down Shen-du's throat. He was suspended, motionless, in midair, his face contorted with hatred, his yellow fangs bared. His eyes had ceased to glow; they now shined a dull, steady, red, and even the fires had frozen. Jade had done it. She had stopped Time. She now had all the chances she needed to rewrite history. She could do anything she wanted, and no one could stop her. She could.  
  
And then the gold pen slipped from her fingers as she dropped to her knees on the Temple floor. Her eyes burned with tears and her body shuddered with pent up sobs as she gazed at Jackie, flames still licking his body. She loved her uncle more than anybody in the world, and no matter how long she forced herself to look at him she felt she could never believe that he was really dead. She couldn't. If she did, she knew she would never be able to escape Shen-du's nightmare world. "This is a dream," she said aloud, her voice sounding eerily small and wavering, "This is a dream! Wake up!" But an icy realization was descending upon her, and a voice whispered that some things could never be undone. "Nooo," she wept quietly, hugging her knees and rocking back and forth on her heels.  
  
And then she was enveloped in cool, white, silk that smelled of new rain on peach blossoms. A tall woman in an intricately-embroidered kimono was holding her in her arms, and her beautiful mouth said gently, "Shhh. Turn away, Jade. You must not look at this carnage." Jade got to her feet and looked into the woman's golden eyes, feeling she must not let herself cry in the presence of such a great lady. The eyes shone like stars, refulgent with a solemn love and wisdom, and Jade fought to keep her lip from trembling.  
  
"Weep, dear child," said the lady softly, "You need not be ashamed." Jade obeyed, and she let the woman gently rock her in her arms as she cried until the tears would no longer come. Then she got up and looked sorrowfully at the woman and the seven men who stood behind her.  
  
"Jade," she said, crouching on the floor so they could look at each other head on, "I am He Xian Gu, and these are my brothers whom you have summoned. We are the Ba Xian. Do you need our help?"  
  
The lump in her throat died away as Jade looked at all of the Eight Immortals, each clutching the symbol with which he or she had defeated on of the Demon Sorcerers. They all varied in age and facial features, but each possessed the same aura of kindness and wisdom as He Xian Gu. They stood in an arc before her, respectfully barring the Demons and dead bodies from her sight. "I don't know what to do," Jade said softly, "I just want Jackie back."  
  
"Jade." The youngest immortal who looked to be only about sixteen years old stepped forward and put his hand on her shoulder. He was armed with a shining, bejeweled sword, and Jade realized with awe that this was Lu Dong-bin, the Immortal who had defeated Shen-du. "You are the master of the Book, and you can bring them all back if you wish."  
  
"Really?" Duh! Why hadn't she thought of that before! She grabbed the pen from the floor and leaped at the book, but Lu Dong-bin unsheathed his sword and leveled it at her. Jade looked at him and backed away.  
  
"Listen to all I have to say before you do that again," he said to her calmly, and she nodded. "You should want to think carefully before you rewrite the world. How much do you want them to remember?"  
  
"Oh, everything!" said Jade, not sure what he was getting at.  
  
"Ahem," coughed a fat old man who was bald except for a two-foot long gray beard. He fanned himself with his symbol, a fan made out of feathers; this was Zhong Li-quan, "You can't do that."  
  
"What?" Jade whirled around and looked at him quizzically.  
  
"Even the Book of Ages," the old man went on, "Is governed by a set of unbreakable laws, child. You can have your family remember one reality, or remember the next reality, or remember a different reality altogether, but they cannot remember both."  
  
"What Brother Zhong is saying," said Lu Dong-bin quietly, "Is that you will have to make a choice."  
  
"But." Jade gazed at He Xian Gu desperately for support, "This was our biggest adventure ever! Of course I want them to remember it!" But then, if this was the memory she chose for them, they wouldn't remember all their other great adventures either. She stood, motionless, for a moment, until He Xian Gu walked over to her and stooped down again. "It is not my choice to make," she said softly, "But perhaps you should be thinking of what life would make your friends happiest. Do you really want them all to have grown up as slaves to Demons?" Jade sighed.  
  
"I see what you're getting at," she said, "And I guess that's the best thing. But I'll miss having us battling the forces of evil all together like this. It's kind of like Robin Hood, except without all the annoying minstrels."  
  
"Your time will come, Jade," said the Immortal, smiling more than a little sadly. She stepped back and folded her hands in the sleeves of her kimono. "Do what you must."  
  
So Jade began. She wasn't sure how long it took, finding the page Shen-du had changed and writing the truth in it; the truth of how the Immortals had defeated the Demons and then how she, Jackie, Uncle, and Tohru had met them and defeated them again. It may have been hours, it may have been days. But it didn't matter, because as soon as she drew the last stroke to her passage which ended with the four of them having tea in her parents' dining room in Hong Kong, the Book started to shine. She looked back and saw that the Eight Immortals were gone, vanished without a trace that they had ever been there. Then the very air started to ripple, like a pond does when you throw a rock in it. Jade became aware of the distant sound of gentle waves, somewhere far, far away in another world somewhere. She sank to her knees and shut her eyes..  
  
"You have been taking such good care of Jade, Cousin Jackie." That was her mother. Jade's eyes flew open and she found herself in the middle of a dark hallway. "We would very much like to come and visit you in San Francisco." Jade followed the voice down the hall, passing doors to other rooms and pictures hung on the wall, until she came to her family sitting at her parent's dining room table eating dinner. "Jade!" cried her mother, "There you are! Your food's cold, I'm sure. Where have you been?"  
  
But Jade didn't answer. "Jackie-Jackie-Jackie!" she yelled, running at her uncle and leaping into his arms, completely bowling him over, "Have I got a story for you!"  
  
***** So that's the end. Hurray! Any reviews! I'll write lots more very soon -Nike Shizu 


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